The Secret World Of A Sean Bean Impression
Funny thing, The Old Republic - while I'm still not entirely sure whether I like it or not (here I am wrestling with its inherent single/multiplayer duality over on Eurogamer, incidentally), what it has successfully done is restore my appetite for MMOs. I thought that urge was dead in me since the great binge of 2006-2008, but no, there the old hunger for virtual globe-trotting is again. So, hellooooooo Secret World. I had barely a lick of interest in you a few weeks ago, having plonked you square in the "oh, another one" bracket, but now I hopefully wonder if you can meet my dark needs as well as doing something new'n'smart. Let's take a peek at your gruff British Illuminati and see how I feel.
It's a merry mix of scene-setting CGI and in-game biff-o-vision, including mirror-monsters, rock-monsters, crow monsters and money monsters,as well as answering that greatest of mysteries - what if John 'Hellblazer' Constantine was played by Sean Bean?
Feels like we've been writing about The Secret World since the site started back in 1873, so it's vaguely incredible to me that it's actually due out this April - a mere three months away. I hope they can achieve all they hope to achieve. What I personally hope is that encountering many of these mad, excellently-designed monsters means something - I don't just run into a field and start clobbering a dozen of them at once, but rather they're terrible, unexpected threats that I'll remember and want to tell stories about.
Beta sign-ups here. I hope I get to be on the beta. Can I be on the beta, please? You can work out which of the three Factions you (might) want to be on with this cheery initiation test.